NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

While the OFFICE of President remains in highest regard at NewEnergyNews, this administration's position on the climate crisis makes it impossible to regard THIS president with respect. Below is the NewEnergyNews theme song until 2020.

“If climate change continues unabated, nearly every ecosystem on the planet would alter dramatically, to the point of becoming an entirely new biome, according to
a new paper endorsed by 42 scientists from around the world…[T] he changes of the next 200 years could equal—and may likely exceed—those seen over the 10,000 years that ended the last Ice Age. If humanity does not stop emitting greenhouse-gas emissions, the character of the land could metamorphose: Oak forest could become grassland. Evergreen woods could turn deciduous. And, of course, beaches would sink into the sea…

[By examining the ‘paleoecological’ record, the scientists found that between] the peak of the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago, and 1800 A.D., the world warmed by between 4 and 7 degrees Celsius…[T]hat ancient warming—which was caused by minute shifts in the Earth’s orbital path—raised global sea levels by almost 400 feet…[and] it could happen again, within the lifetime of babies born today: Earth could experience 4 to 5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100 if humanity does not slow the emission of heat-trapping gases…” click here for more

China Is Still The Place For New Energy

“…[G]lobal renewable energy production is making steady inroads globally, with China being the current worldwide leader…In 2008, the total global renewable energy capacity was 1,060,668 MW. Notable increments were made for each successive year, and by 2017, the figure stood at 2,179,426 MW—a staggering increase of 105.47 percent in just nine years [according to new data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)]. In addition to Asian economies, African countries made considerable progress…[Ethiopia and South Africa made] noteworthy gains…[But] countries such as Guinea-Bissau, Djibouti and South Sudan are yet to install any renewable energy production capacity…[Actual in GWh grew] almost 58 percent over eight years. Asian countries fared the best in this regard, with a total combined output of 2,222,580 GWh…China alone accounted for three quarters of Asian renewables production and is the global leader as of 2016—producing more renewable energy than all European countries combined…” click here for more

South Africa To Move From Coal, Nuclear To New Energy

“The South African Government has approved a draft [plan] to increase renewable energy generation…Jacob Zuma, the former President, had proposed expanding the nuclear power sector by adding new nuclear capacity in excess of 9 gigawatt…[But after a vote of no confidence, he] was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa…[His cabinet] approved the updated Integrated Resources Plan (IRP 2018) which will increase renewable energy capacity and… only 1 gigawatt worth of new coal capacity will be added by 2030 and there will be over 15 gigawatt of renewable energy used including hydropower, solar and wind…[A significant reduction in South Africa’s continent-leading greenhouse gas emissions will cause a] change in the energy mix post-2030,] mainly driven by decommissioning of old coal power plants that reach their end of life…[Following the approval of the new plan,] the UK announced plans to invest £56 million into South Africa to develop energy storage technology to help supply secure renewable power in the country…” click here for more

What If The Arctic Melted And Nobody Cared?

Editor’s note: Below is the gist of an important and superbly readable piece. Click through and read the whole thing.

"Last week, scientists learned that 40-foot piles of compacted sea ice — some of the oldest and most durable clusters in the Arctic — are breaking away from the coast of Greenland and drifting out to sea…[I]t was hardly unexpected. As the earth’s climate heats up, the idea of a ‘blue Arctic’ — that is, the disappearance of sea ice for at least part of the year, leaving only open ocean — has long been predicted by climate scientists…Some researchers believe that you might be able to kayak to the North Pole [by 2030 or 2040]…The thawing of the Arctic is one of the biggest stories of our time, even if it is playing out at a pace and in a way that virtually guarantees most people will pay little or no attention to it…

…[This is not] simply a tragedy for polar bears; the warming Arctic is already having a tremendous impact on our world and may help explain much of the extreme weather this summer, especially in the U.S. and in western Europe. To oversimplify this only slightly, you could argue that this summer’s historic wildfires in California were predicted by heat in the Arctic…[There is growing evidence that the dynamics of weather itself are changing…[T]he jet stream, a] band of high winds around the Northern Hemisphere that significantly influences our weather in the mid-latitudes…has actually slowed down significantly in recent decades…More extreme weather is not the only immediate and alarming consequence of a melting Arctic. Another is the thawing of permafrost…[Conservative estimates find the permafrost could] release around 120 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere by 2100, which would contribute another .3 degrees Celsius of warming…In our rapidly changing world, no place is too distant or too far away to matter. Like it or not, we are all in this together. When ice melts in the Arctic, the west burns.” click here for more

Calif Lawmakers Approve 100% New Energy By 2045 Goal

"California would set some of the nation’s strongest clean energy goals under…the just-passed] legislation that would require California to obtain 100% of its power from clean sources by 2045…[Its cost and feasibility were] debated by lawmakers for nearly two years…Lawmakers supporting the bill said it was important that the state continue its pioneering efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions…Senate Bill 100 [was introduced by Senator Kevin De Leon and] would also require electric utilities and other service providers to generate 60% of their power from renewable sources by 2030, up from the current 50% goal…If it is signed by the governor, California would become the second state in the U.S. [following Hawaii] to rely solely on clean energy by 2045…[O]pponents, chiefly Republican legislators, argued that phasing out fossil fuels by 2045 was not achievable, and could sharply increase energy prices…

…[The bill has been part of debate about a proposal from Gov. Jerry Brown to integrate California's electricity grid with other states in the region…[and debate about] comprehensive legislation to address wildfires…Brown has not taken a public position on SB 100…[but former] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger] argued that Trump administration policies rolling back federal efforts to combat climate change made it all the more urgent…Former Vice President Al Gore also cited White House policies in his endorsement of the bill, saying that California must respond by leading on climate change…The politics over the bill go beyond energy policy. De León, former president pro tem of the state Senate, is running for U.S. Senate against fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who is seeking a fifth full term…[Many lawmakers] have endorsed Feinstein…” click here for more

Editor’s note: Since this story was filed, California regulators and lawmakers have taken major steps to calm the upheaval with a new short term procurement mandate, a new 100% renewables mandate, and a resolution of the exit fee issue.

California is conducting what may be the most ambitious electricity customer empowerment experiment ever done anywhere; whether it will work remains very much in doubt. The state is the national leader in both utility-scale solar and distributed solar capacities and fourth in the nation in wind capacity. Yet California’s dominant investor-owned utilities (IOUs) procured zero new MW of renewable energy capacity in 2017. And a preliminary plan released in January by state regulators proposes almost no 2018 procurement. That is the symptom. The problem is widespread power sector uncertainty causing what one key observer called an “upheaval.” The disruption does not support California’s goals to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve its 60% renewable energy by 2030 mandate and 100% by 2045 goal. And it threatens the stability of utility-scale renewable energy builders.

California’s successful transition to renewables is one cause of the current upheaval. It has left the state with midday solar overgenerationand a sharp, difficult to manage demand spike in the late afternoon and evening. Another source of upheaval is the Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) decision to shutter the state’s last nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, by 2025. It raises the contentious question of how the state should fill the 2,200 MW deficit of emissions-free baseload generation. The state needs flexible generation, but natural gas peakers will make the climate goals harder to reach. The third and biggest cause of upheaval is the rise of community choice aggregation (CCA). A 2002 law allows CCAs to act as load serving entities (LSEs) and take on IOU customers. Active CCAs now serve over 1 million California electricity customers and projections show IOUs could lose 85% of their customers to alternatives by the mid-2020s… click here for more

Editor’s note: The fight against undue EV fees goes on and the common ground between utilities and EV advocates continues to expand.

In 2017, electric vehicles began to present state policymakers with regulatory turmoil previously reserved for rooftop solar. The estimated 765,000 U.S. electric vehicles (EVs) remain a very small percentage of the 250 million-plus vehicles in operation. And the almost 200,000 new EVs sold last year in the U.S. represent a tiny fraction of the total 17 million-plus in new car sales…But almost every major auto manufacturer has public plans for an EV model by 2020, according to PlugInCars. And a 2016 Bloomberg New Energy Finance report showed EVs reaching cost parity with conventional vehicles between 2022 and 2026. Just as when rooftop solar began to boom between 2012 and 2014, state legislators and regulators are responding to the rising customer demand for EVs with a flurry of policymaking activity. But whereas the rooftop solar battles often divided utilities and environmental organizations, the two are finding new common ground in transportation electrification.

There were 227 state- and utility-level actions related to EVs proposed, pending or decided during 2017, according to a new national policy review from the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center (CETC). The legislative and policy actions covered by the review are wide ranging and include studies of EV impacts and incentives, charging station buildout, and EV-specific rate designs. As with rooftop solar, some proposed state policies would act to slow the growth of electric vehicles. Special fees, which act as disincentives by adding to the total cost of EV ownership, were the most common. This is especially problematic for environmental advocates because the EV value proposition is just beginning to attract a market beyond first-adopter climate and plug-in vehicle activists. Utilities object to policies that slow EV adoption because they interfere with load growth, with the opportunity to profit from charging infrastructure buildout, and with access to the flexible load represented by EV charging that could provide utilities with grid services… click here for more

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

New data from the US EPA on power plant greenhouse gas emissions are in, and electric vehicles (EV) in the US are even cleaner than they were before. The climate change emissions created by driving on electricity depend on where you live, but on average, an EV driving on electricity in the U.S. today is equivalent to a conventional gasoline car that gets 80 MPG, up from 73 MPG in our 2017 update.

Cleaner electricity means cleaner EVs

Based on data on power plant emissions released in February 2018, driving on electricity is cleaner than gasoline for most drivers in the US. Seventy-five percent of people now live in places where driving on electricity is cleaner than a 50 MPG gasoline car. And based on where people have already bought EVs, electric vehicles now have greenhouse gas emissions equal to an 80 MPG car, much lower than any gasoline-only car available.

To compare the climate-changing emissions from electric vehicles to gasoline-powered cars, we analyzed all of the emissions from fueling and driving both types of vehicles. For a gasoline car, that means looking at emissions from extracting crude oil from the ground, getting the oil to a refinery and making gasoline, and transporting gasoline to filling stations, in addition to combustion emissions from the tailpipe.

For electric vehicles, the calculation includes both power plant emissions and emissions from the production of coal, natural gas and other fuels power plants use. Our analysis relies on emissions estimates for gasoline and fuels production from Argonne National Laboratory and power plants emissions data recently released by the US EPA.

An important difference between EVs and conventional cars is that existing EVs can get cleaner—and, over time, they are getting cleaner. It’s difficult to make burning gasoline cleaner, and electricity is trending cleaner over time as we shift away from coal and add more renewables. This means that EVs that were sold years ago can run much cleaner than when they were purchased. Our initial analysis of EV emissions used data from 2009, while this update incorporates 2016 data. By switching between these two maps, you can see the improvement made in many regions of the US.

The maps shown above are based the efficiency of the average EV. However, there are now options on the market that are even more efficient. Using one of these more efficient EVs (Hyundai Ioniq BEV, Prius Prime, and Tesla Model 3) means lower emissions. With these cleaner EVs, 99 percent of the country is in a region where electricity emissions would be lower than a 50 MPG gasoline vehicle.

How do other EVs compare? Use our EV emissions tool to estimate the emissions from a specific EV in your area.

Electric vehicles produce less emissions now because the electric grid is getting cleaner. Over the last ten years, the fraction of power from coal has fallen from nearly 50 percent to 30 percent. Over the same time, utility-scale renewable power like solar and wind power have grown to make up 10 percent of electricity generation.

This analysis relies on data from power plants for 2016, the most current data that includes details on the geographic location of emissions. However, based on the overall data on from 2017, it looks like emissions will continue to fall, with both coal and natural gas declining while renewable power continues to increase.

The falling emissions from electric power over the last decade also highlights the need to work to clean up electricity generation and transportation now. While we are moving in the right direction with renewable power and growing numbers of EV models, it takes time to replace existing power plants and gasoline cars. It’s vital that we accelerate the adoption of EVs, even if all power is not yet from renewable or low-carbon sources.

“…[The 300,000 coffee-producers in the fertile mountains of Colombia’s coffee-producing region are] increasingly vulnerable to climate-change-induced disasters like flooding, drought,] unpredictable seasons, crop disease and invasive insects associated with climate change…[Over 90% of farmers surveyed by the MarketWatch research team] reported changes in average temperature. Some 74% said droughts had gotten longer and worse, and 61% reported an increase in mountainside erosion and landslides because of more rain…The farmers also perceived impacts of these environmental changes on their crops. Some 91% reported changes in the flowering and fruiting cycles of the coffee plants, 75% had noticed an increase in pests, and 59% reported an increase in crop disease…

…[M]any farmers cannot rely on traditional seasonal indicators to guide them about the right time to plant, harvest or tend to their coffee crops…Organizing labor to pick the coffee beans has also become a struggle because the trees often do not flower at the same time due to unstable seasonal conditions…From 2008 to 2013, Colombia’s coffee production dropped approximately 33%...The country has worked to increase its production since then…But they’re still short of the national production goals…Other developing countries where the coffee industry is being hit hard by climate change, such as Brazil and Tanzania, have tried some successful adaptation strategies…[Farming in this] new and unpredictable environment requires a detailed understanding of…complicated economic, informational, labor and business problems… Colombian coffee farmers want to succeed, but they’ll need help in all of these areas just to survive.” click here for more

…Senate Bill 100 would transition California to 100% zero-carbon, effectively renewable electricity by 2045. Our studies provide a way to do this for all energy, including electricity…[Claims by Robert Bryce, from the Koch family- and Exxon Mobil-funded Manhattan Institute, are completely wrong that such efforts] would ‘require wrecking vast onshore and offshore territories with forests of wind turbines and sprawling solar project’…

The fossil fuel footprint in California is 1.6% of the state’s land area…Our solar plan footprint is only 39% of the land taken up by fossil fuels. Bryce claims our onshore wind needs 16,000 square miles based on his use of three megawatts generated per square kilometer of land. However, wind land is not “footprint.” It is mostly open space that also can be used for agriculture, rangeland, wildlife or solar; thus, the same land can be used for two energy sources…Using a conservative estimate of average energy density yields 3,000 square miles of space for wind power, not 16,000…” click here for more

Monday, August 27, 2018

TODAY’S STUDY: How One State Is Getting Ready To Grow Solar

Today Pennsylvania is well situated to lead the country into the next age of energy development: clean, renewable solar photovoltaic (PV) energy. While nearby states have embraced solar development to a greater degree than Pennsylvania, the experience they gained can now be used here to enhance both distributed generation and large “grid scale” solar PV farms connected to the transmission grid. In fact, whereas in 2000, Pennsylvania had less than one Megawatt (MW) of solar installed, today, there are over 300 MW installed in Pennsylvania. 1

Pennsylvania is moving forward in the solar marketplace, but there is significant potential for solar to continue this growth and transform the electricity generation sector. The benefits of an increased share of solar in the electricity generation sector are enormous…

Before the Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future stakeholder process began, it was clear that Pennsylvania already possessed a unique set of assets that can position the state to take the lead in solar development and maintain its stance as an energy leader…

With those assets in mind, stakeholders provided input regarding pivotal factors influencing solar PV deployment and associated considerations, risks, and benefits. Several stakeholder workshops were held across the state, with diverse sector participation (FIGURE 1). During each workshop, facilitators engaged stakeholders in breakout sessions for three main workgroups: Markets and Business Models, Policy and Ratemaking, and Operations and Systems Integration. Stakeholders provided feedback within these workgroups as well as during general listening sessions.

Stakeholder input was supported by a process of modeling and data analysis investigating three primary scenarios to achieve the 10 percent target by 2030: the Reference Scenario, the Solar A Scenario, and the Solar B Scenario.

The Reference Scenario assumes “business as usual” markets and energy consumption within the state and offers a baseline comparison. Solar A and Solar B Scenarios articulate two contrasting pathways for achieving 10 percent solar energy demand, using the same total energy consumption as in the Reference Scenario (TABLE 1) In the Solar A and B Scenarios, most of the new solar development comes from Grid Scale solar that is connected directly to the transmission and distribution system, rather than behind the customer meter.

The stakeholder engagement process worked to identify the most impactful and realistic strategies that would move Pennsylvania towards that the target of 10 percent solar by 2030. The stakeholders discovered that the pathway to successfully reaching the target will likely require a suite of strategies:

1) Cross-cutting (Grid scale and Distributed)

2) Grid Scale Solar Generation

3) Distributed Solar Generation

Their goal was to identify the most impactful effective strategies to maximize Pennsylvania's solar future.

Cross-Cutting Strategies

The cross-cutting strategies, such as changes to the Pennsylvania Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) and adoption of carbon pricing, will dramatically impact both grid scale and distributed generation.

The key to the overall effort was to identify strategies that will bring the project costs of solar to a price point that will encourage the market’s swift adoption of the technology. The price of solar is decreasing globally, and this is projected to continue, although perhaps at a slower pace than in the past decade. While the global supply and demand for solar modules are an important factor on price that the Pennsylvania market will have little influence on, there are several local factors that impact the installed cost for new solar in the state and policies and market conditions that impact the returns on solar investments. Implementing the cross-cutting strategies could shift the price point of solar and increase both grid scale and distributed generation.

Even if adopting these cross-cutting strategies influence the price point of solar, it is still necessary to consider costs and benefits associated with transforming the electricity generation sector. The modeling process helped guide stakeholder analysis by producing cost information relative to an increased level of solar development.

Economic cost: The modeling found that over 15 years, the Solar A and Solar B scenarios have average net annual economic costs ranging from $513 million to $613 million. These estimates represent the lifetime costs and savings associated with the solar capacity in each scenario compared to the reference scenario.

By way of context, Pennsylvania’s annual energy expenditures are roughly $45 billion. Therefore, over the 15-year study period the investments required for the Solar A and Solar B Scenarios are just 1.2 to 1.4 percent above current energy spending.

Economic and environmental benefit: In addition, the modeling shows that the Solar A and Solar B scenarios both provide net economic benefits in excess of $25 billion from 2018 to 2030, when accounting for environmental externality costs. Further, in both scenarios, economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions decrease by 2-3 percent by 2030.

Land use: Another important issue identified by the stakeholders is how much land use would be required to achieve that level of solar development for both distributed generation and grid scale. The modeling found grid scale solar would use 89 square miles (56,800 acres) in Solar A Scenario and 124 square miles (79,200 acres) in Solar B Scenario. Roof-top systems are not included in the land use numbers; however, a 2008 study on rooftop solar potential in Pennsylvania found that more there is space for more than 27 GW of solar PV panels on existing rooftops statewide alone, nearly three times the amount needed for the entire 10 percent target.

To put the acreage into perspective, the required land use to meet the grid scale levels for each scenario represent a negligible fraction (less than three-tenths of 1 percent) of Pennsylvania’s total land area and less than half of the total abandoned mine lands in Pennsylvania. Therefore, it’s clear there is more than sufficient available land to accommodate both scenarios of Grid Scale solar within Pennsylvania and land use strategies can be pursued.

Jobs. The modeling process estimated job impacts of the solar scenarios using the Jobs and Economic Development Impact (JEDI) model. 7 Combined with the itemized cost for solar installation and maintenance, the JEDI model uses economic input output analysis to provide an estimate of how much of the investment in solar recirculates within Pennsylvania, supporting local businesses and jobs. (TABLE 2).

As the modeling scenarios discussed above indicate, any significant increase in statewide solar generation is expected to come, in large part, from grid scale deployments of solar. Although not necessarily required to meet the target, the modeling expects 65 to 90 percent of the solar generation to be grid scale.

While there are cross-cutting issues that reflect on all solar deployment, there are several approaches and considerations that are relevant to only grid scale that may help alleviate some of the hurdles currently holding back grid scale solar development in Pennsylvania.

Through the Pennsylvania Solar Future planning process, it became clear that grid scale solar will need to maintain a growth rate higher than it has averaged in the past to reach the target. However, other markets around the country have seen sustained growth well above the rates required by the solar scenarios.

In both solar scenarios, grid scale solar grows faster than distributed solar. This is because Pennsylvania, like other nascent solar markets, has significantly more distributed solar installed today than grid scale. The solar scenarios show quick growth in grid scale largely because that sector has driven the growth in most states with mature solar markets. Under either solar scenario, implementing the strategies above will require accelerated grid scale growth.

The modeling scenarios assume distributed solar generation will be responsible for a smaller fraction of the overall deployment than grid scale solar—likely between 10 percent and 35 percent. In order to meet these targets, the distributed generation annual growth rate would need to be sustained at current levels for the next 12 years. Current growth rates from 2013-2017 were 22 percent for residential and 7 percent for commercial solar. The following strategies could help to support and continue the growth seen in recent years and therefore meet the target for distributed generation.

While the scenarios are dominated by a significant build out of grid scale solar in a manner not yet experienced in Pennsylvania, efforts should also be made to overcome barriers for distributed generation and community solar so Pennsylvanians may maximize the opportunities to develop all solar resources commensurate with broader social, environmental, and economic benefits.

The strategies contained in the PA Solar Future Plan recognize that with the removal of barriers for all sectors of solar development, the actual achievable solar penetration could far exceed the target of 10 percent by 2030 as is being demonstrated in many states in the region.

The Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future Plan demonstrates that by implementing strategies that increase solar generation, Pennsylvania will gain significant economic, environmental, and health benefits. Pennsylvania can continue its energy leadership role and advance policies that advance solar energy’s role in the state. We recognize that achieving the 10 percent target by 2030 would be challenging and would take a sustained growth rate in excess of business-as-usual. But this plan challenges the narrative that solar can’t work in Pennsylvania and presents several strategies that can be combined to create many pathways that lead to the 10 percent target, should policy makers commit to that path.

Going forward, the Pennsylvania’s Solar Future Project Team and stakeholders will continue to discuss these strategies with an eye to implementation details and the keys to achieving market transformation, while minimizing ratepayer cost impacts.

Finding Pennsylvania’s Solar Future is a project of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Energy Program’s Office (EPO) with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. DEP brought together a project team that, along with DEP and the U.S. Department of Energy, included Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture), The Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC) and Pennsylvania-based solar subject matter experts (“Facilitators”) Sharon Pillar, Dr. Jeffrey Brownson, Ron Celentano, and Maureen Mulligan. The Project team took significant input from both our committed partners and our robust stakeholder group composed of over 500 members.

QUICK NEWS, August 27, 2018: 12 Artists Face A Changing Climate

Editor’s note: Only one Quick News piece today because this story is worth the time it will take to use the link at the bottom of the post to click through and take in all the artists’ contributions.

“Human-induced climate change, which certain politicians deny and many of us choose to ignore, threatens the survival of every species on Earth. If emissions continue at their current rate, scientists anticipate widespread coastal land loss, agricultural and economic collapse, food and water shortages, frequent and severe natural disasters, and unprecedented refugee crises…[For an ongoing NY Times arts series, 12 contemporary artists contributed works responding to climate change. Xavier Cortada will ask 6,000 Florida households] to install an ‘Underwater HOA’ yard sign (similar to the 18- by 24-inch ‘Home for Sale” yard signs used by realtors…[showing] how many feet of melted glacial water must rise before a particular property is underwater…

…[Mary Mattingly’s] photograph was taken in Utah, at a point equidistant from Bears Ears National Monument and Daneros Uranium Mine. A recent order by President Donald J. Trump shrank the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument by nearly 700,000 acres, and it seems likely that more mining will come to the area. The text on the pine box is from Samuel Beckett’s 1953 novel The Unnamable…[It] prompts us to ask: What do people see when they experience this land, and what is hidden? The objects in the photograph — clays used for pigments, tools containing uranium, copper used in bullets — were found in the area, and expose its contradictions: Extraction and smelting processes toxify the land and its dependents, while the extracted elements are simultaneously necessary to create the goods that sustain many ways of life…

…[Alexis Rockman’s art to] render moments of extinction, genocide, population explosion and political discord visible…[so] we might learn to confront and change the conditions leading to civilization’s collapse…[He has realized] we have a crucial Achilles heel: Our brains are wired to be tribal and to think only in the seasonal short term. Even someone as persuasive as Al Gore could not successfully galvanize the world with his books and films. The idea of ‘sacrificing’ for the future seems ridiculous to most people when they are entrenched in a daily struggle for survival. Even if they will listen, people just don’t have the collective will to do much. The engine of capitalism is too powerful…” click here for more

Saturday, August 25, 2018

A Grid For Everybody

This is a vision of a system that has a place for customer-owned resources, private sector providers, and the people who built and now operate the grid. From Electric Power Research Institute via YouTube

Friday, August 24, 2018

Which Baby To Save

“…[T]he excuses for inaction in Bob Hicok’s parable of environmental greed rapidly rise to a rousing chorus of denial. W.H. Auden’s “The Age of Anxiety” has devolved into an age of outrage whose citizenry has grown adept at justifying procrastination to the point of changing course to suit its comfort. Hicok’s exhortation to accept responsibility for our future falls on conveniently stoppered ears: The final line, with its rhyming monosyllables, lands like a judge’s gavel…

India Reaches For The Power Of Solar

“…[India’s 25 GW] solar project is set to move forward] in the Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir…[which] receives the highest solar radiation per unit area in India…[The project, which would produce enough electricity to supply over 6 million homes,] will deliver power to a transmission point in the state of Himachal Pradesh, from which it will be dispensed…Last year, India partnered with the EU in its commitment to the implementation of the Paris Agreement [which the U.S. abandoned under the current administration]…” click here for more

The Power Wind Gives To Sweden

“Swedish utilities and power generators have already installed so many wind turbines that the Nordic nation is on course to reach its 2030 renewable energy target late this year…[According to the Swedish Wind Energy Association, Sweden will have more than enough capacity by December] to meet a target to add 18 terawatt-hours of new renewable energy output by the end of next decade. Some new plants will be built by Norway, who Sweden share a renewable certificates market with…The surge in new installations and investment decisions has become a concern for existing power producers, who rely on subsidies to make their projects financially viable. Forward prices in the renewable certificate market are 70 percent lower for 2021 than a year earlier because of all the new installations…Final investment decisions for as many as 840 megawatts were taken in the second quarter… and a total of 7,506 megawatts of wind capacity will be installed by December…Most of the new capacity will be on land. A total of 2,609 megawatts of on-shore wind capacity will be added in 2018 and 2019…” click here for more

Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that will ReCharge America by Sherry Boschert: "Smart companies plan ahead and try to be the first to adopt new technology that will give them a competitive advantage. That’s what Toyota and Honda did with hybrids, and now they’re sitting pretty. Whichever company is first to bring a good plug-in hybrid to market will not only change their fortune but change the world."

Oil On The Brain; Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline by Lisa Margonelli: "Spills are one of the costs of oil consumption that don’t appear at the pump. [Oil consultant Dagmar Schmidt Erkin]’s data shows that 120 million gallons of oil were spilled in inland waters between 1985 and 2003. From that she calculates that between 1980 and 2003, pipelines spilled 27 gallons of oil for every billion “ton miles” of oil they transported, while barges and tankers spilled around 15 gallons and trucks spilled 37 gallons. (A ton of oil is 294 gallons. If you ship a ton of oil for one mile you have one ton mile.) Right now the United States ships about 900 billion ton miles of oil and oil products per year."

NOTEWORTHY IN THE MEDIA:
NewEnergyNews would welcome any media-saavy volunteer who would like to re-develop this section of the page. Announcements and reviews of film, television, radio and music related to energy and environmental issues are welcome.

Review of OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The American Decades by Mark S. Friedman

OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The American Decades, the second volume of Herman K. Trabish’s retelling of oil’s history in fiction, picks up where the first book in the series, OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The Story of Our Addiction, left off. The new book is an engrossing, informative and entertaining tale of the Roaring 20s, World War II and the Cold War. You don’t have to know anything about the first historical fiction’s adventures set between the Civil War, when oil became a major commodity, and World War I, when it became a vital commodity, to enjoy this new chronicle of the U.S. emergence as a world superpower and a world oil power.

As the new book opens, Lefash, a minor character in the first book, witnesses the role Big Oil played in designing the post-Great War world at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Unjustly implicated in a murder perpetrated by Big Oil agents, LeFash takes the name Livingstone and flees to the U.S. to clear himself. Livingstone’s quest leads him through Babe Ruth’s New York City and Al Capone’s Chicago into oil boom Oklahoma. Stymied by oil and circumstance, Livingstone marries, has a son and eventually, surprisingly, resolves his grievances with the murderer and with oil.

In the new novel’s second episode the oil-and-auto-industry dynasty from the first book re-emerges in the charismatic person of Victoria Wade Bridger, “the woman everybody loved.” Victoria meets Saudi dynasty founder Ibn Saud, spies for the State Department in the Vichy embassy in Washington, D.C., and – for profound and moving personal reasons – accepts a mission into the heart of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Underlying all Victoria’s travels is the struggle between the allies and axis for control of the crucial oil resources that drove World War II.

As the Cold War begins, the novel’s third episode recounts the historic 1951 moment when Britain’s MI-6 handed off its operations in Iran to the CIA, marking the end to Britain’s dark manipulations and the beginning of the same work by the CIA. But in Trabish’s telling, the covert overthrow of Mossadeq in favor of the ill-fated Shah becomes a compelling romance and a melodramatic homage to the iconic “Casablanca” of Bogart and Bergman.

Monty Livingstone, veteran of an oil field youth, European WWII combat and a star-crossed post-war Berlin affair with a Russian female soldier, comes to 1951 Iran working for a U.S. oil company. He re-encounters his lost Russian love, now a Soviet agent helping prop up Mossadeq and extend Mother Russia’s Iranian oil ambitions. The reunited lovers are caught in a web of political, religious and Cold War forces until oil and power merge to restore the Shah to his future fate. The romance ends satisfyingly, America and the Soviet Union are the only forces left on the world stage and ambiguity is resolved with the answer so many of Trabish’s characters ultimately turn to: Oil.

Commenting on a recent National Petroleum Council report calling for government subsidies of the fossil fuels industries, a distinguished scholar said, “It appears that the whole report buys these dubious arguments that the consumer of energy is somehow stupid about energy…” Trabish’s great and important accomplishment is that you cannot read his emotionally engaging and informative tall tales and remain that stupid energy consumer. With our world rushing headlong toward Peak Oil and epic climate change, the OIL IN THEIR BLOOD series is a timely service as well as a consummate literary performance.

Review of OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The Story of Our Addiction by Mark S. Friedman

"...ours is a culture of energy illiterates." (Paul Roberts, THE END OF OIL)

OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, a superb new historical fiction by Herman K. Trabish, addresses our energy illiteracy by putting the development of our addiction into a story about real people, giving readers a chance to think about how our addiction happened. Trabish's style is fine, straightforward storytelling and he tells his stories through his characters.

The book is the answer an oil family's matriarch gives to an interviewer who asks her to pass judgment on the industry. Like history itself, it is easier to tell stories about the oil industry than to judge it. She and Trabish let readers come to their own conclusions.

She begins by telling the story of her parents in post-Civil War western Pennsylvania, when oil became big business. This part of the story is like a John Ford western and its characters are classic American melodramatic heroes, heroines and villains.

In Part II, the matriarch tells the tragic story of the second generation and reveals how she came to be part of the tales. We see oil become an international commodity, traded on Wall Street and sought from London to Baku to Mesopotamia to Borneo. A baseball subplot compares the growth of the oil business to the growth of baseball, a fascinating reflection of our current president's personal career.

There is an unforgettable image near the center of the story: International oil entrepreneurs talk on a Baku street. This is Trabish at his best, portraying good men doing bad and bad men doing good, all laying plans for wealth and power in the muddy, oily alley of a tiny ancient town in the middle of everywhere. Because Part I was about triumphant American heroes, the tragedy here is entirely unexpected, despite Trabish's repeated allusions to other stories (Casey At The Bat, Hamlet) that do not end well.

In the final section, World War I looms. Baseball takes a back seat to early auto racing and oil-fueled modernity explodes. Love struggles with lust. A cavalry troop collides with an army truck. Here, Trabish has more than tragedy in mind. His lonely, confused young protagonist moves through the horrible destruction of the Romanian oilfields only to suffer worse and worse horrors, until--unexpectedly--he finds something, something a reviewer cannot reveal. Finally, the question of oil must be settled, so the oil industry comes back into the story in a way that is beyond good and bad, beyond melodrama and tragedy.

Along the way, Trabish gives readers a greater awareness of oil and how we became addicted to it. Awareness, Paul Roberts said in THE END OF OIL, "...may be the first tentative step toward building a more sustainable energy economy. Or it may simply mean that when our energy system does begin to fail, and we begin to lose everything that energy once supplied, we won't be so surprised."

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